Poland plans to include legal online slots in its revamped gambling laws but there’s still no confirmation on giving locally licensed gambling operators a badly needed tax break.
On Monday, Poland’s Ministry of Finance dropped its latest hints about overdue revisions to the country’s gambling laws, which include allowing Polish-licensed online operators to offer online slots, provided they toe the line regarding responsible gambling protections for consumers.
The Ministry of Finance also plans to authorize land-based slots, but these “have to be covered by the state monopoly performed by a designated entity.” The Ministry notes that slots are “extremely addictive” and thus their use will be confined to “dedicated areas under control.”
The plan to authorize online slots play contradicts last week’s public comments by Deputy Prime Minister Jaroslaw Gowin, who claimed verticals like sports betting and poker were less socially harmful than “hard gambling” products, which he defined as including slots and other “casino games.”
The Ministry’s latest communication did adopt one of Gowin’s proposals, namely, loosening restrictions on poker. The Ministry says it will authorize online poker as well as land-based poker games outside their current confines in the country’s casinos.
While liberalizing the options available to Polish-licensed online operators, the Ministry intends to beef up enforcement efforts against international operators serving the Polish market, primarily by the standard IP- and payment-blocking mechanisms. The Ministry also threatens “more severe consequences” for operators who continue to flout the law.
Left unsaid in the Ministry’s update is the status of expected changes to the country’s gambling taxes. At present, betting operators are subject to an onerous 12% tax on turnover, while Gowin’s press conference last week suggested a 20% tax on gross gaming revenue would be applied to all gaming verticals.
The Ministry did say it expects its new gambling regime to take effect on January 1, 2017. In the meantime, the revisions have been submitted to various other branches of government for their approval.
